I understand that Zotero 7 should be more accessible for users with disabilities. Are the expected accessibility improvements and features available somewhere?
I don't think they are detailed anywhere (for now, there isn't any change log at all, but I doubt changes at this level of detail will be listed even on stable release.)
The main improvements are Screenreader behavior (appropriately labelled buttons) and keyboard accessibility of functionality. I've done some very light testing and it does look improved, though not perfect yet. The one major feature I haven't been able to make work with keyboard is PDF annotations. I might also be missing something there, though.
My university got an institutional account for Zotero Storage about a year ago. It was approved on the strength of a promise that Zotero was working on a VPAT. The contract is coming up for renewal very soon. In the continued absence of a VPAT, I strongly suspect that our Title IX office will deny the renewal, leaving the faculty and students who took advantage of the extra space high and dry.
I am eager to avoid that. Zotero is a wonderful product. I have used it myself for many years, and the library I work at recommends it to all of our patrons. But we have to abide by the requirements of the institution. All I can do is ask, please, for a VPAT. It doesn't need to be perfect. We understand that accessibility is difficult, and even the best software has some flaws. We can work with that as long as the flaws are documented so we can provide appropriate assistance to anyone needing it.
Yes, we've been working with an outside firm to evaluate accessibility issues across the software in preparation for releasing a VPAT for Zotero 7. We've made countless accessibility improvements in Zotero 7, which far exceeds Zotero 6 in keyboard and screen reader accessibility, and we're continuing to work through specific problems that they've identified in the beta.
Note that Zotero 7 has been in beta for the last year and was a technical prerequisite for many of these changes, which is why the process is still ongoing. We understand that simply having a VPAT is the primary requirement at many institutions, but our focus has been on actually improving accessibility, not just documenting inadequacies, so we weren't going to create a VPAT for Zotero 6.
Zotero 7 will be released before the school year begins, and we'll make a VPAT available at that time. Thanks for your continued patience.
As mentioned above, we've been working with an outside auditor to evaluate and improve the accessibility of our software, and we can now say that Zotero 7 fully meets WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
Yes, we received a copy of the latest VPAT a week or so ago. It was a longer road than I would have liked, but I appreciate Zotero's willingness to really lean in and work hard to make Zotero fully accessible. Thanks.
Is there a guide on how to access the accessibility functions? I am a screen reader user (jaws) attempting to use annotate and some other features, but I cannot find documentation to explain how to do this and some other functions.
@abaker574, an accessibility guide is certainly something we should consider. It does not currently exist.
As a general rule, any additional instructions are stored as aria-descriptions, which by default are not announced by JAWS. Make sure that in JAWS Settings > Speech Verbosity > (Your verbosity level) > Control Description checkbox is enabled. Then, when you navigate the annotation tool buttons in the toolbar of a reader tab, you should hear instructions for keyboard shortcuts to add them.
To add a highlight or underline annotation, you can find the piece of text via "Find in Document" popup (it's button is in the reader toolbar) and press Control-Alt-1 or Control-Alt-2 to create the annotation. To add annotations of other types (note, text, area), you just use Control-Alt-3/4/5 shortcuts to add that annotation onto the current page when reader is focused.
Feel free to followup with more questions here on this or other features you are interested.
Thank you, I will give that a try. I have been asked to teach a class of V.I. students how to use Zotero so I will be back. A guide would really be helpful, and I hope that is considered in future updates/releases. Is there a better way to reach accessibility support than on this forum, or would you say this is the best place?
Upgrade Storage
The main improvements are Screenreader behavior (appropriately labelled buttons) and keyboard accessibility of functionality. I've done some very light testing and it does look improved, though not perfect yet. The one major feature I haven't been able to make work with keyboard is PDF annotations. I might also be missing something there, though.
As I understand, issue reports are welcome
My university got an institutional account for Zotero Storage about a year ago. It was approved on the strength of a promise that Zotero was working on a VPAT. The contract is coming up for renewal very soon. In the continued absence of a VPAT, I strongly suspect that our Title IX office will deny the renewal, leaving the faculty and students who took advantage of the extra space high and dry.
I am eager to avoid that. Zotero is a wonderful product. I have used it myself for many years, and the library I work at recommends it to all of our patrons. But we have to abide by the requirements of the institution. All I can do is ask, please, for a VPAT. It doesn't need to be perfect. We understand that accessibility is difficult, and even the best software has some flaws. We can work with that as long as the flaws are documented so we can provide appropriate assistance to anyone needing it.
Note that Zotero 7 has been in beta for the last year and was a technical prerequisite for many of these changes, which is why the process is still ongoing. We understand that simply having a VPAT is the primary requirement at many institutions, but our focus has been on actually improving accessibility, not just documenting inadequacies, so we weren't going to create a VPAT for Zotero 6.
Zotero 7 will be released before the school year begins, and we'll make a VPAT available at that time. Thanks for your continued patience.
Please let your IT people know they can send us a message at support@zotero.org to request a VPAT.You can find our completed VPAT on this page:
https://www.zotero.org/accessibility
Zotero is under constant development, so if you find an accessibility issue, please open a new thread in these forums so we can investigate.
As a general rule, any additional instructions are stored as aria-descriptions, which by default are not announced by JAWS. Make sure that in JAWS Settings > Speech Verbosity > (Your verbosity level) > Control Description checkbox is enabled. Then, when you navigate the annotation tool buttons in the toolbar of a reader tab, you should hear instructions for keyboard shortcuts to add them.
To add a highlight or underline annotation, you can find the piece of text via "Find in Document" popup (it's button is in the reader toolbar) and press Control-Alt-1 or Control-Alt-2 to create the annotation. To add annotations of other types (note, text, area), you just use Control-Alt-3/4/5 shortcuts to add that annotation onto the current page when reader is focused.
Feel free to followup with more questions here on this or other features you are interested.